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If you have clicked this thread then you hopefully want to give me some guiders, but you are prolly asking yourself: whats up whit this dude?

Well it is simple. i am first and foremost a miniature collector. i buy stuff that visualy look in my mind, cool, regardless of company/range, aaaaand i have a weakspot for machines.
(I have asked for help on other 40k armys in dakka before, and allways got help, so now im doing it again, and it wont be the last time im making threads like this)
So when i, one day last year went into my gw shop and it had been several years since last time, my eyes found adeptus mechanicus! then i found 2 codexes!, 1 for humanoids and 1 for bad ass robots.

Ofc i selected cult mechanicus!

That choice has left me whit the following models:, 1 dominus, 9 kat breachers, 4 kastelants plus their human pets.
I will not use priests!. They are nice models and i enjoy painting them but they have no role in my robot army(yea i know the breachers are cyborgs, but they look more like mini tank droids then cyborgs to me)

So to the point of this thread; after 8th dropped and the codex this weekend, i want to try to actualy play whit this army
Buut, i have no idea how to, as the demo game i got in the gw shop was marines vs something else......


I wish for guide lines to what do do whit what i have. what are my weaknesses, what is my strenghts(if i have any), should i play defence or offence.
I tried getting my head around strategems and wargear and factions and whatnot but i lost the steam halfway true and grabbed some chocolate and watched nascar on youtube instead. simple minds needs simpler entertaiment

I will be starting whit 500p or 25pp just to learn the game(that means 1 dominus and 6 breachers....), then eventualy scale up to 750p and 1000p.
2 of the kastelants are glued to 3x guns, the other 2 are fully swappable. all the weps on the breachers are swappable and so is the dominus, so i have some level of flexability. (i think, i hope..)

(Natuarly this is not competative nor will it ever be. This is local club gaming or gw shop gaming)

Well you have 2 most important things right now then - HQ (Tech-Priest Dominus is fine for small games) and 4 Kastellans (They are the best unit in codex right now)
The Kataphrons are a bit weak I'm afraid. Don't get me wrong - they are great units but got really high price tag in terms of points - what they do is available elsewhere in the codex for cheaper.

But that's for later - first, you want your army for 500p correct? I strongly urge you to take 2 Kastelans with triple Phosphor Blaster configuration to see how quickly you'll like them (spoiler - they'll be MVP of the game), Tech-Priest Dominus with Volkite Blaster and Macrostubber (for you know - it would be preferred for you to consider getting Tech-Priest Engineseer from Astra Militarum tag on the website for that low points - could also get one of your Datasmith and call it Engineseer as proxy, most people will be fine with this) and finally 3 Breachers with Arc Rifles and Arc Claws. (they'll most likely won't bring much to the table but it's the only option cheap enough for you to take in 500p)

Your playstyle - you are a shooty army. That means you want to start as far from your enemy as your guns allows. Your Kastellans are very tough and durable but cant really fight in close combat (they get 3 attacks each while you could fire all your Phosphor Blaster at once for 9 total attacks). That's where rest of your army comes in. Position your Breachers between them and enemy with Dominus between Breachers and Kastellans - his aura gives you ability to reroll 1s during shooting phase (so your Kastellans wil faill to hit on 2s and 3s with additional roll of the die when rolling 1s) while being able to repair anything wounded by your enemy (so Breachers can last longer in fight, or if one Kastellan is miraculously wounded by shooting attacks).

Your weaknesses are the fact that your enemy could easily outmaneuver you and attack Kastellans in close combat. You can't have it. Kastellans with triple Phosphor deal great amount of death over long distance and tying them up in close combat is disaster.

Your strength is ability to shell your enemy with 18 high strength high armor penetration shots that ignore cover. You can go indefinitely during long range encounters due to ability to repair your dudes with Tech-Priest Dominus.

Think of yourself as a giant robot having to deal with those pesky mortals all around you that want to nibble on your legs. You are an immovable object that can deal great amount of pain to those around you but have do it before they overrun you.


EDIT:
I highly suggest you rising your points level to 750 or 1000 if you want to keep Tech-Priest Dominus in your army. He is a huge point sink.
You then could field all of your Kataphron Breachers (unit of 9 or 3 units of 3) with Tech-priest Dominus and unit of Kastellans. In 1000 points you could add additional unit of 2 Kastellans.